Sarah: We've have had four fabulous days in Beijing. The local people are lovely and really want to welcome you to their city. We've visited all the major attractions you'd expect but also stayed in the hutongs which are the backstreets of Beijing, where the local people live in tiny little ramshackle lean-tos and their everyday life basically spills out into the street. This for us is the most fascinating part and has been a welcome relief from the big, busy roads and the big modern buildings that are springing up everywhere, impressive but impersonal. The Forbidden City, where the Emperors lived, is bigger than huge and more opulent than you could believe. As for the Great Wall of China, it is beautiful, although walking along it for 10k we were hotter and more exhausted than
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